The Kids' Table Blog

Adventures in Healthy Cooking - from our Kitchen to Yours!

Whether or not you get to come cook with us at one of The Kids' Table's Chicago locations, we hope you'll follow our culinary adventures through this blog. We'll be sharing anything related to food and kids - like tips and tricks for enticing picky eaters, healthy school lunch ideas, time saving tactics in the kitchen, and of course, LOTS OF RECIPES!

The Kids’ Table opened back in February of 2007. In the past almost 12 years, dozens of people have been a part of our team, bringing not only their skills and expertise to the job, but also their unwavering passion for sharing the love of real food with others (especially the younger generations). Carrie Schloss was one of these folks! She was a Kids’ Table manager and culinary instructor a few years back…

This chocolate cake recipe was one of our very first recipes. We’ve been using it for almost 12 years for cooking birthday parties, summer camps, family dinners, and kids nites out. We have never been tempted to even think about tweaking it! That’s how good it is.

For 4th bday celebrations and beyond, we usually have each child make their own 4-inch cake…

Every person that works at The Kids' Table is passionate about "real food" and showing others how amazingly cool and delicious real food can be! You'll see this passion shine through if you come to one of our kids cooking classes, family dinners, or birthday parties, or if you happen to pop in when we're excitedly testing recipes. Caitlin is a culinary instructor and the manager of our Wicker Park location. She exudes a love of food pretty much all the time…

School is back in session! That means it's time to get back to packing lunches. Sunbutter & Jam is tasty, but it will only take you so far. Even if you don't need to pack lunches, chances are you need some healthy after school snacks in your back pocket. If you don't have something at the ready, the kids are likely to sneak into the pantry when you're not looking and reach for a much less healthy snack! Enter the Hummus & Veggie Mini Pitas...

There’s nothing like a cold sweet treat on a hot summer day! This Watermelon Italian Ice recipe is especially cool, because you can easily make it at home (and without an ice cream maker). And it’s pretty sweet that most of the sweetness in this recipe comes from the fruit itself (instead of a bunch of added sugar). Store bought frozen desserts are usually loaded with added sugars, and many contain artificial colors and flavors…

Oatmeal is a great way to start the day. It’s healthy, hearty and can be customized in almost endless ways. The downside? You have to cook it (which takes a little time). And the end result is basically a hot porridge. Perfect for a chilly fall or winter day. Maybe not so perfect in the heat of summer. Overnight oats have become all the rage, and solved both those problems (you measure and mix everything the night before, store in the fridge, and you have chilled oatmeal by morning)...

I'm so grateful for the amazing people who are part of The Kids' Table family - they are talented, always willing to roll up their sleeves, and believe whole-heartedly in our mission to teach folks of all ages that cooking is fun and real food is really good! One of these amazing people is Pam. She teaches classes (babies & tots are her favorite age groups), is our social media/marketing guru, and routinely whips up deliciously seasonal recipes with kids at farmers markets. I'll let her tell you all about her most recent market adventure...

Summertime is garden time. I'm still a novice grower, but I just love the satisfaction of planting seeds and watching them grow. And there's nothing like the taste of freshly picked produce. Talk about eating local! Of course gardening (like most rewarding things) does take work. Weeding is one of the big garden chores that comes to mind. Last year when I did get around to weeding, I did what most people do - indiscriminately yank out anything that I didn't plant. That all changed this year....

At The Kids' Table, we believe that food should always be fun. So many holiday-themed treats are loaded with not-so-good-for-you ingredients. Like artificial food coloring and excessive amounts of sugar. This flag cake is all natural, fabulously festive, and just the right amount of sweet!

When it comes to controlling the sugar level of cakes, we find the secret is in the toppings…